Dimitri Payet has been as big a disappointment on the field this season as off it

Sure, the free-kicks against Bournemouth, Crystal Palace and the one up at Old Trafford were special.

Keep up to date with ALL the football news, gossip and transfers on our club page plus fixtures, results and live match commentary

So, too, were some of the assists, along with the tricks that turned him into a cult hero down at West Ham.

Since then, with the exception of his goal against Middlesbrough, he has barely lifted a leg.

One decent season does not turn him into a legend. We are not talking Bobby Moore, Alan Devonshire, Tony Cottee or Sir Trevor Brooking.

Payet, who is refusing to play Palace tomorrow, probably does not even know who these Hammers icons are.

He has taken West Ham to the cleaners, signing a £125,000-a-week contract in the summer while angling for a move all along. The France midfielder has played David Sullivan, the man who signed off that contract, like a fiddle.

He is Hammer of the Year, an accolade they should strip from him following his decision to go on strike. Payet does not seem the type to care.

Payet has been on a downer all this term – ever since signing a mega contract

He wants out, something West Ham have been aware of ever since he gave an interview in November suggesting he had bigger fish to fry.

Karren Brady, the club’s vice-chairman, was confident that he had nowhere to go. In any event, she made it clear he would not be sold.

At 29, with a fat new contract in the bag, Brady believed nobody would really come in for Payet in January.

She called that wrong.

By then he was acting up, repeatedly telling Hammers boss Slaven Bilic that he no longer wanted to play on the wing.

Payet saw himself as the main man, the No 10 the team should be built around after his successful adaptation to English football. He always has an excuse for poor form, with France’s run to the final of Euro 2016 a ready-made explanation for his sluggish start to the season.

Check out West Ham stars Payet and Lanzini show off their skills against Watford